Battle of Helm's Deep
 The Two Towers
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Ents of Fangorn 
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| Battle of Helm's Deep | |
|---|---|
| ID | 5 |
| Name | Battle of Helm's Deep |
| Creator | Decipher |
| Release Date | 2003-03-12 |
| Is Official | yes |
| Platforms | Paper • LotR-O • GEMP • mLOTRO • Tabletop Simulator • Lackey • gccg |
| Notes | |
Battle of Helm's Deep (or BOHD) is the first expansion of Towers Block, and the fifth set overall. It was released on March 12, 2003. The set contained 122 cards (40 commons, 40 uncommons, 40 rares, and 2 premium cards that only appeared in starter decks), all of which could appear in foil versions. Four rares from the set had Tengwar versions produced and six rares from the set were printed in starter decks with alternate art (three per deck).
Themes and Mechanics[edit]
Similar to Mines of Moria, Battle of Helm's Deep contained themes that referenced significant visual effects that Decipher wasn't able to release before The Two Towers movie came to theaters:
- The first Ents other than Treebeard, including the first Ent companions;
- Mumakil and Warg mounts;
- Uruk-hai Berserkers, which prefer to be close to exhaustion and have ways of self-exerting to enable that;
- and most notably, the introduction of the
Gollum culture.
The set also widely expanded the number of cards with or referencing the Machine and Valiant keywords.
Cultures[edit]
This set contained the debut of the Gollum culture, as Decipher was not licensed to spoil images of Sméagol/Gollum before The Two Towers released in theaters. This culture broke new ground by being the first (and so far, only) culture to have both Free Peoples and Shadow cards, centrally the inclusion of both the Minion Gollum and the Companion Sméagol. Mechanically, this captured the internal struggle of the character perfectly; not only could Sméagol help the Fellowship while Gollum attacked it, but you could even assign Sméagol to skirmish Gollum, and watch his internal war play out on the table.
BOHD also marked the re-introduction of the 
Sauron culture, which had been absent in the base set. The new Sauron cards included trackers that lowered site numbers rather than reducing roaming costs.
New Loaded Keyword[edit]
A character with Enduring get strength +2 for each wound on that character. Many cards with Enduring were given abilities which required healing the character as a cost, which led to a number of potential loops that needed to be corrected with errata or x-listing cards.
New Unloaded Keywords[edit]
The set introduced three new unloaded keywords:
- Knight, a new subculture for
Gondor representing the soldiers of Minas Tirith. - Fortification, a type of condition representing defensive structures. While it is used a bit by
Rohan, this is really a Gondor staple. - Warg-rider, a subculture of
Isengard Orcs which can ride Warg Mounts.
Starter Decks[edit]
For this set, Decipher decided to experiment with removing the 3 random Rare cards that normally came in a Starter Deck, and replacing them with fixed Alternate Image "rares" which thematically suited the deck. While the power level of the decks as playable specimens increased, the perceived value of these decks took a nosedive as there was no longer any reason for collectors to buy more than one. Decipher tried once more with Ents of Fangorn, and after that restored the random rares with The Return of the King and all following sets.
Cycles[edit]
Battle of Helm's Deep does not contain any cycles.
Notable Cards[edit]
- Evil-smelling Fens (5U22)
- Gollum, Stinker (5R25)
- Citadel of the Stars (5C32)
- Gríma, Chief Counselor (5R51)
- Dead Marshes (5R95)
- Sting, Baggins Heirloom (5R116)
